DSTV is horrible

I won a free upgrade late November 2021 and the upgrade was to be effective for a month (15 Dec 21 - 15 Jan 22). A usual monthly subscription for compact was paid and the upgrade was supposed to be free as per T's & C's of the competition. However, last week Fiday ( 7th of Jan) we woke up only to find our services deactivated eventhough a payment was made. I tried to find out what the issue could be that led to our services being disconnected and was very shocked that there was an outstanding balance that was almost double our usual subscription fee. I contacted the customer care only to be assisted by an agent who was in a very noisy background that made it so difficult to hear the agent. The very same agent made me hold for so long, making me incur unbearable airtime costs, only to NOT get my issue resolved. We spent hours with no access to the services we had paid for and was hopeful that the agent will get back to me since I shared my contact details with him and was assured that the matter was being escalated - NO FEEDBACK WAS RECEIVED NOR WAS THE ISSUE RESOLVED.

I then had to make another phone call, after waiting for approximately 7 hours since my initial call, because at the rate things were going, it seemed like we were going to spend the night without tv access. Fortunately I got assisted by a competent agent as opposed to the first one and the issue was resolved within few minutes - well, so I thought! On Wednesday the 13th of Jan, the services were discontinued AGAIN. I then had to contact the customer care AGAIN and asked them to downgrade the so called "free upgrade " from premium to compact plus as it was only bringing us misery. The agent then informed me that in order to enjoy the compact plus services we had to make a payment of about R100 within 24 hours as it was outstanding and I did so few minutes after hanging up - I actually paid more (R200+). Now irrespective of our monthly subscription fee being settled, WE STILL DO NOT HAVE FULL ACCESS TO THE SERVICES WE PAID FOR.

DSTV should STOP these so called Competitions because it seems like their system is flawed. I am experiencing this misery for the second time - same thing happened in Jun/Jul 2021. Instead of enjoying our winnings we end up being inconvenienced and incurring costs (airtime).